Why 6 dogs 'work' at Amazon headquarters

Anna Jentoft doesn't go to work at Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, Washington, alone. Her one-year-old black Labrador, Franny, is always with her: sitting near her desk while Anna is busy with calls, greeting other company employees during the day. Franny is one of the thousand-plus dogs who come into Amazon's Seattle office every day, and one of more than six thousand four-legged "employees" allowed to visit the company's headquarters.

Фото: Depositphotos

The famous retailer is included in 8% of companies in the US, allowing dogs to accompany owners in the office, and this figure has increased by 3% compared to 2013 year, the newspaper writes Time.

“If I need a breath of fresh air after an intense meeting, I take her for a walk, or we sit on the floor and play for a few minutes. It gives me comfort,” says Jentoft.

Amazon Pays much attention to dogs in the workplace for about 20 years. It all started with a four-legged pet named Rufus. When the company's website was just starting out and selling books, a married couple of employees once brought a Welsh Corgi to the office. The dog fascinated everyone and quickly became part of the team’s daily communication. Rufus, now deceased, even participated in the launch ceremony of the first site, buyers could click on the product pages with the icon depicting his paw, and one of the buildings on campus Amazon in Seattle was named in his honor. Also, an image of the dog appears on the website page indicating a 404 error. Here he is “accompanied” by three dogs who followed in the footsteps of the famous dog Rufus: Lucy the Labrador, Sheriff the golden retriever and Martini the Papillon.

Now any company employee can bring a dog to work: in the campus offices you can get free pet food, on the 17th floor there is a special entertainment area with toy fire hydrants, small decorative ponds and several recreation areas for owners with dogs. Jentoft says that she would not exchange this job for any other - having already “tasted” how great it is to come to work with your beloved dog, Anna, as she admits, is unlikely to be able to work anywhere else.

Lara Hirschfield, the manager in charge of the “dog” part of the office, is sure that dogs are an unexpected and effective way to strengthen the bond between employees and help them communicate more with each other.

“Every day I see workers Amazonwho meet in the lobby or elevators just because of their dogs,” says Lara.

And her opinion has a scientific rationale, writes CNBC. Recently, experts from Central Michigan University discovered that the presence of a dog in an office where many people work encourages individual employees to be more sociable and friendly than communication in groups where there are no dogs.

This is a point echoed by Jennifer Fearing, co-author of Dogs at Work: A Practical Guide to Creating Dog-Friendly Workplaces. Fearing believes that the ability to bring a dog to work helps an employee work without distractions - he does not have to run home in the middle of the day to feed the animal and rush home in the evening under stress. In addition, dogs support communication between employees from different departments.

“You may not have an idea for working together at all, but since you start talking about the dog, you soon open up opportunities that create synergy,” the expert emphasizes.

True, according to Fearing, each company should develop its own protocol about which dogs will be allowed into the office. If an animal demonstrates aggression, bites, or attacks people or other dogs, it is not advisable to allow such a dog into the office again. It is important to take into account the animal's regular hygiene, as well as the opinions of employees with allergies and those who are bothered by barking. Alternatively, this could be addressed by creating “dog-free zones”.

Photo: twitter.com/JeffBezos

"Amazon was dog friendly from day one,” Lara Hirschfield writes on the company blog. “Our dogs bring a fun, dynamic energy to our workplaces.”

It is not exactly known whether the founder and CEO have a dog. Amazon Jeff Bezos. Nevertheless, he began the annual conference of robotics with a walk to which he went with a robot dog.

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